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4 Jan 2018

The Presidency Is Lying to Nigerians About Fuel Subsidy- Senate

The Nigerian Senate has accused the Presidency of deliberately peddling falsehood regarding a request to pay oil marketers.

President Buhari's Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, had on Tuesday blamed scarcity of petrol on the failure of the Senate to approve a loan request submitted to it by the Executive, for the payment of debts owed oil marketers

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, on Wednesday countered, saying the Red Chamber never received any request from the presidency.

“Senate will want the public to know that no such request has been made to it; specifically requesting for loan meant for payment to oil marketers. Senate is aware that subsidy on petroleum had been cancelled by this administration; so we wonder which payment we are talking about now.

“Senators have been inundated with calls from oil marketers who were present at the meeting with the chief of staff to the president on the issue and, thus, we call on Mallam Kyari to either prove his claim or retract it.

“It should be noted that a similar claim was made by the Minister of Finance on the foreign loan, at a time the Presidency had not forwarded the request. The letter requesting the foreign loan was submitted long after she was confronted with the fact. It is the opinion of the Senate that, instead of resorting to false claims and shifting blames in the mould of ‘Blame Someone Else,’ the Executive and Legislature should work together to solve this unecessary fuel crisis which is making life more difficult for our people.”